First *ever* Saturn!

[Johnny666666]

Hi to everyone :-)

Saturday night about 2-ish I was gazing at the stars and after a quick double check on Stellarium I was amazed to find that one of the bright points visible to me just over the rooftops was Saturn! I grabbed my binos and could just about make out the distinctive shape (not blurred but too small) so literally grabbed the scope and hastily set it up on the patio. I didn't even polar align but still managed to grab a few video files. Processing is not great by any means (again, very little detail that Registax can pull out before the result starts to look too grainy) but this was the first time I had ever seen Saturn, let alone imaged it!

Once again, any comments and suggestions, good or bad, would be welcome. I seemed to really struggle with the colour balance on this image so in the end I've just left it as it came out of Registax. RGB Aligning didn't help the blue fringe, it simply shifted a blue 'shadow' of Saturn around but left the blue fringe there to a lesser extent.

Skywatcher 150P, 2 x Barlow, GH3 in movie mode with Ex Tele Converter on, ISO 400 at 1/100th (I think) processed from 1500 frames.

[Leveye]

Well done! I can even see some of the division. Nice!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice first capture!

[oldpink]

very well done
not easy when its as low as it is in the sky

[Stargazer33]

That is good for a first try. Not sure what is happening with that colour cast!?!

What percentage of good frames did you stack from your 1500 frame run? Have you tried stacking it in another program to see if you can get rid of that artefact?

Either way, it's much better than my first attempt. Well done.

[Doyley]

Nice image, not had a chance to glimpse my first Saturn due to the clouds!  Very Jealous

Peter

[Johnny666666]

The colour cast is there on all the individual frames (a red and blue fringe) which I've been told is down to atmospheric refraction? I think I set Registax to pick the best 400 but now I'm exporting the movie as a cropped set of images Registax works much faster, so it will give me opportunity to play about with these settings a bit more. I keep meaning to try Autostakkiert2 but simply haven't had the time yet (I barely know Registax as it is!)

[Pete Presland]

congratulations on your 1st Saturn image! a tricky target at the best of times. 

[Astrosurf]

Great first shot! You've got a little detail on Saturn too. I'm useless at planetary so I can't advise, except to go carefully with Wavelets in Registax as it can introduce artifacts. I tend to use the last three sliders and only the first three if the image is OK. Try viewing the image zoomed. There's an option on the panel on the right hand side. 

Yep, the blue and red fringe is atmospheric refraction. You've got rid of most of it. It can be tricky to remove. I also wonder if it's a tad out of focus? How did you focus?

Alexxx

[Johnny666666]

Great first shot! You've got a little detail on Saturn too. I'm useless at planetary so I can't advise, except to go carefully with Wavelets in Registax as it can introduce artifacts. I tend to use the last three sliders and only the first three if the image is OK. Try viewing the image zoomed. There's an option on the panel on the right hand side. 

Yep, the blue and red fringe is atmospheric refraction. You've got rid of most of it. It can be tricky to remove. I also wonder if it's a tad out of focus? How did you focus?

Alexxx

With great difficulty! I don't have a 10:1 focuser, just the standard one that came with the scope. It was almost impossible to focus to be honest, the image was tiny and the seeing was very poor. I have considered upgrading to a Crayford 10:1 but I'm not overly happy with what I can see in the live view so I'm not sure another £100 spend will be of most benefit. I'm probably right on the limit of my equipment and certainly expertise at the moment

[Astrosurf]

Use a Bahtinov mask and focus on a nearby bright star first. If you can lock your focuser afterwards then do so. Mine has a little grub screw I tighten. Double check the focusing as it might have shifted slightly. That'll sort you out!

[mitchelln]

You've got the Cassini division Things will get over the next two months as Saturn gets a little higher. Not going to be great until we get into the 2020's though unfortunately. This is certainly a hobby that requires patience!

[Gomtuu]

Nicely done. Hope my first comes out as well as that!

[Johnny666666]

Use a Bahtinov mask and focus on a nearby bright star first. If you can lock your focuser afterwards then do so. Mine has a little grub screw I tighten. Double check the focusing as it might have shifted slightly. That'll sort you out!

I did wonder about using a Bahtinov Mask (yet another new term, and yet more expense!  ) as a focussing aid. I assume I can simply focus on any nearby star, even though they might in effect be millions of kilometres further away than what I want to image, and the optical train will still be in focus? How irrelevant is depth of field in AP when it comes to imaging?